Junior Dos Santos: Alistair Overeem Isn’t As Buff As He Was Before
Former heavyweight champion Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos hasn’t been very active as of late. He was last seen in action at UFC on FOX 13 last December where he scored a unanimous decision win over Stipe Miocic in a back and forth bloody slugfest. Before that, “Cigano” hadn’t fought for over a year.
However, having taken some time off to recover, JDS will likely be ready to step back into the cage soon, and he may even have an idea of who is next opponent will be, and it happens to be a familiar name in Alistair Overeem. The two were scheduled to meet back at UFC 146 for the belt, but the bout was scrapped when Overeem was dealt a year-long suspension for having an elevated testosterone:epitestosterone ratio.
With “The Reem” now having strung two wins together, and “Cigano” still remaining around the top of the division, the bout once again makes sense. Speaking with Combate, the Brazilian slugger said that he believes it would be a good fight and that the idea is interesting:
“That’s an interesting fight. If the UFC also thinks so, it will happen,” said Dos Santos. “He’s doing well, got himself two wins in a row. Before that he was sort of apathetic in the division. No matter who it is, I just want that can make me evolve and get better at my quest to be the champion again. My goal is to just fight again. But that could be a good fight, yes”.
After his most recent win, the idea of the fight was brought up to Overeem, who didn’t exactly seem in love with it. This lead some fans to think that “The Demolition Man” was ducking Dos Santos, but JDS doesn’t believe that, saying that Overeem has evolved immensely:
“I don’t believe he’s ducking me. He’s a great fighter who conquered many titles. We, fighters, don’t look at our opponents with fear or anything, that doesn’t make sense to me and I think it’s the same for most of the real ones. He’s training with Greg Jackson, has added new weapons to his game, like the stomp we see Jon Jones do a lot. His footwork was good, he struck without getting hit. He evolved. He’s also not as buff as he was before, he has been working on his speed”.
Just like Overeem has switched camps and evolved, Dos Santos is also contemplating the idea of joining a new camp. Although he has been with the famed Nova Uniao for years now, and doesn’t want to leave his native Brazil, “Cigano” expressed his interest in the highly touted American Top Team. The former champ said it would be good to diversify himself, and also stay with his current team:
“I have many friends over there. Antônio Carlos ‘Cara de Sapato’, who is like a brother to me is training there now. There’s Bigfoot, Roan Carneiro and Yuri Carlton who is my jiu-jitsu master. There’s also Steve Mocco, who is a wrestling beast. I’d like to diversify. Big Nog and I used to go to San Diego and that helped me a lot. I think it would be nice to go back when it doesn’t get in the way of my camp at Nova Uniao”.
With a possible change in teams, could JDS possibly make another run at the heavyweight title? Would you like to see him meet Overeem?
